This was what Bryan Colangelo looks like when he is uncertain. It’s a rare thing for him; even when things are going wrong, Colangelo projects certainty and control. How he dresses, how he walks, how he speaks; it’s a calculated display of confidence, which can bleed into arrogance on occasion. He is used to being in charge. He’s been in charge for a long time.

It all feels familiar, like an old apartment. The furniture has changed; the furniture always changes. Sometimes it’s old and battered stuff; sometimes it’s newly assembled. You can change the curtains and repaint, but it never works, even if it doesn’t work in different ways. This is where the Toronto Raptors live.

On Wednesday night, the Toronto Raptors finished off another lousy season, another forgettable season, another year in the same essential place. It started with happy words — building, Bryan Colangelo insisted, not rebuilding, banishing that word like it was the plague — and then the team started 4-19, and the rest was fulfilling obligations.

At his season-ending news conference, though, Colangelo’s confidence seemed oddly subdued. Yes, he laid out his case for his Toronto Raptors as they are presently constituted, but he didn’t do it like a man holding all the cards. There is a reason for that, of course; his contract as team president and general manager has not been picked up for next season, officially or unofficially, and you get the sense that he doesn’t know what’s coming, either.

So he is selling what he has done, which he always does, but he’s also selling himself, because he has to. He seemed more on edge than he has at any point of his Toronto tenure; he answered questions that weren’t asked, took questions on winding paths, softened the rhetoric and tone. It felt like a dress rehearsal for the pitch he will have to make to the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment board in the coming weeks; it was the vanilla version of the sell job he will make to the bosses.

“We are at that next step and the next step is an expectation to make the playoffs,” Colangelo told reporters. “I will take that squarely on my shoulders and say that is the new expectation as we go into next season.”

It’s not the highest bar, but Toronto’s only been in the post-season five times in 18 years. Maybe it’s high enough.

That’s what we will find out, since the ceiling for this team seems somewhere between also-ran and playoff fodder, though Colangelo thinks it could be higher. (As my colleague Eric Koreen notes, that 30-30 finish came after the hardest part of the schedule was over).

He is selling what he has done, which he always does, but he’s also selling himself, because he has to

So, the sell. Oddly, there was barely a mention of Amir Johnson, who was surely the most important and honourable player the Raptors had this season, and who has completely vindicated the risky contract Colangelo had given him. There was plenty of talk about Jonas Valanciunas, which is fine; picking him fifth and waiting for him to come to Toronto was a far-seeing move. The young Lithuanian could become exactly the kind of centre who would have fit with Chris Bosh once upon a time, but hey, life is all about timing.

After that, the selling gets more tenuous, but Colangelo carried on. He is selling Rudy Gay as the closest thing to an all-star that this franchise has had since Vince Carter or Bosh. That was a title previously held by Andrea Bargnani, so it’s sort of a half-compliment. He reiterated the case for DeMar DeRozan’s potential, even though his numbers have remained steadily inefficient on a per 36-minute basis over the past three years.

He also mentioned Gay has vision issues that require correction in an interview on TSN Radio with myself and Dave Naylor; an NBA source says Gay has required contact lenses for years, but has refused to wear them, and could not get comfortable with goggles this season. Since his biggest problem is his shooting, maybe there is a medical way to turn him into the all-star Colangelo desires. When you’re trying to hit threes, it helps if the rim appears in focus.

Colangelo also made excuses for Kyle Lowry, but is only selling him as the potential point guard of the future, depending on how next season goes. He is not quite selling the departure of Bargnani, but in the radio interview, he indicated that both sides believe Bargnani needs to try again elsewhere, but made sure to mention the big Italian’s talent because he’s still got to actually make a trade. It almost sounded a fait accompli; it probably is not.

As for Colangelo, nothing seems certain. He surely knows he is in peril here. You would think that if the board was truly determined to fire him he would already he gone in the name of expedience; MLSE didn’t even wait until the NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement was signed before canning Leafs GM Brian Burke. Why would the organization let him speak to the media before deciding whether it would be a farewell address? The fact that he’s getting a hearing at all would point to a better chance of him being retained, wouldn’t it?

MLSE chief operating officer Tom Anselmi, when asked, said no, decisions like this need to be made with patience. Well, Colangelo has been here since 2006; it would be strange if two more weeks and a presentation made the difference. But that is where we are, and Colangelo is waiting, wondering what’s coming, along with everybody else.